First, let’s look at the history of the argument. Around Christmas the Washington Post ran an article about how used bookstores became cultural hubs in small towns and cities where cultural hubs were hard to find. This is great. A used bookstore is a swell place to drink coffee and look smart while you peruse the poetry section. A used bookstore is a boon for young writers who can use it as a hub, a space for readings, and a place to explore writing. Amazon is awful at helping you discover new writing and scrounging through an old bookstore is marginally better – but only marginally. But at least there are sometimes brownies in a bookstore.

What some writers are concerned with, however, is the idea that they make no money from used book sales. Because no royalties come from the gray market, they wager, there is no benefit to used bookstores. In short, it’s the old “F you, pay me” argument, one that is at once cogent and logical.

￼Don’t ever apologize to an author for buying something in paperback, or taking it out from a library (that’s what they’re there for. Use your library). Don’t apologize to this author for buying books second hand, or getting them from bookcrossing or borrowing a friend’s copy. What’s important to me is that people read the books and enjoy them, and that, at some point in there, the book was bought by someone. And that people who like things, tell other people. The most important thing is that people read.

So both camps are correct but I worry that the first camp will soon be wrong. Here is the hard truth: the opportunity to have a books resold in a used bookstore is fading quickly. In a perfect world I’d love for a used bookstore to feature any one of my titles in all its ragged, pre-read glory. But I am not a fool. I understand that the opportunity for my books to appear in print in any great number is now over. I will publish books in ebook form and sell them in paperback as an afterthought. There is no benefit to going with a traditional publishing when I can do so much myself and save my sanity in the process.

￼I have no problems with people reselling books to used bookstores. I do it. I buy books from used bookstores. BUT, I also actively go out of my way to make sure writers are PAID.

Because here’s the thing. We cannot cheer that used bookstores are “socking it to Amazon” and at the same time bemoan we aren’t making any money.

We cannot collectively cheer the “return of paper books” when they are in the used form and then also cry that we can’t leave the day job because we are not being paid for our work.

We can’t promote articles like these, directing readers to outlets where we don’t make royalties and then stand mystified that no one takes our career seriously. Why are we promoting businesses who brag about not paying us? Again *head explodes*

Great stuff. Funny stuff. But take a look at her last paragraphs:

￼Make SURE you sign up for my upcoming classes! This is part of how I fund my plans for global domination. Purchase a class! Buy a book! OR ignore all that follows but DAMN sure buy all your books NEW or I WILL FIND YOU O_o ….

She is making money selling classes to writers who could, ironically, self assemble those classes at bookstores. To be clear I am amazingly pleased by this. There is enough awful writing out there that any education will help. But the very thing she is upset about – the idea that bookstores can resell your titles – presumes there are books to resell in used book stores. This will soon not be the case and print books will become artisanal objets D’art relegated to used bookstores when reading and writing will attempt to take root and blossom.

I want to pay writers all day long but our culture and many technological advances have made that an unpopular option. You are not paying to read these words – or you are paying, indirectly, through your attention – and I have been blessed to be allowed to enter so many of your heads with my scribblings. Soon all writing will reach a central inflection point when “free or cheap” becomes the norm and print is expensive. This will, in turn, reduce the number of books available to bookstores in general and used bookstores in specific. In the end, paying the author will become much easier and bookstores will snuff out like candles in he wilderness. What happens then is anyone’s guess, but it won’t be pretty.